I have a question for those that are against people using magic find gear in a dungeon setting. Let us assume that you were the only person out of 5 not wearing magic find gear, the other 4 were. Would you still accuse the other 4 of not doing their fair share? How do you determine what is a fair share anyways? That part is highly subjective. Is it by DPS only? Perhaps whoever survives the longest?
I ask this as we had a group of 5 not 3 days ago running the Living Story dungeon. On the final 2 bosses we wiped the first two times until we figured out the patterns and on our last attempt we succeeded. The ironic thing is the one person that survived long enough to rez the others happened to be wearing magic find gear. She was a Ranger and her pet kept the last boss standing busy long enough for her to get the others up. However according to many here that person would not have been valuable to their group and a waste of a spot as she was wearing mf gear.
Once again I will reiterate what many have tried to say here. It is not the gear that makes a person valuable to the group and the value of the gear is highly overrated when DPS numbers take precedence over everything else the person has to offer.
So the Ranger stayed alive well enough to rez you guys without survival stats from gear.
Seeing as Berserker’s also has no survival stats, this is relevant… how? Oh right, it’s not.
No one is denying someone can be of value despite MF gear. However, they are of greater value in another set, as other sets are numerically superior. And this loss of value is for an entirely self-centered bonus that has no impact on the rest of the group, unlike every other stat.If it was meant by ANet for it to be a “selfish stat” (I have never met selfish numbers, but I guess those things do exist), why was it implemented in the first place? Especially since game design leans towards the cooperative side way more than the competitive. IMHO, it’s just gear that forces you to choose between stat focusing and loot chance %-which is a benefit to many players, but can also be a problem since you can’t have the best of both worlds.
In short, I am not opposing people not liking MF gear-fine, why use what you don’t like for whatever reasons?-but that people justify not using it by hating on players who use it, making it a personal and moral issue (“selfishness”.) If no one forces you to choose something other than Berserker’s (for instance), no one should make feel other players “selfish” for using MF gear-it’s totally inaccurate in many, many cases that people use MF gear just to “leech” of a group-even if it could happen-much like not every player that uses Berserker’s gear is an intolerant elitist.
Well considering Colin’s post on page 1 of this thread, it certainly is a very good question why they put it in like they did when they apparently feel it’s bad.
And the difference between getting mad at people over MF and getting mad over other stats is that other stats can be argued to be better than something else. You can feel as if someone is actually trying to do the best they can with any other stat, because they all have merits. MF sets do not. You see someone with MF and you see someone who is actively not attempting to do their best, and it’s because they want better drops for themselves. Which is fine solo, but in a group, social contract. Then, not only are they breaching the social contract by not trying their best, but they’re also getting better drops because of their breach.
Do not judge all players by their gear use, is all I wish for people to do. FotM gear doesn’t make you a god-practice and experience yields skill. I would never use MF gear in a group that has stated they don’t want it (well, I don’t use it on dungeons at all, save my Syzygy and Ancient Karka Shell with Ruby Jewel on my Warrior), but I don’t see why it’s wrong if every one in the group agrees. I won’t feel “cheated” by a player having theoretically better drops than me-I don’t begrudge people their good luck, and my social contracts are quite freeing-use whatever works for ya. I have met selfish Berserker’s players, and selfless MF gear users, even if you deem that to be an impossibility due to the way it was designed.
I do understand the design problem, but I can’t relate to all the complaining and worrying about whatever someone else uses (“he/she is being selfish!”, I am so much moral than he/she is!"), if you can just group with like-minded people instead of being paranoid about PUGS in your party (no offense intended, and not referring to yourself.)